Thursday, August 02, 2007

When Santa brought me a flashy KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer (in stunning Imperial Red, of course) for Christmas last year, then I got a free food grinder on top of the deal. I LOVE the stand mixer, and use it a lot. The food grinder attachment has proved to be quite a handy piece of equipment as well, I must say, which I've put into good use by grinding my own lamb for small lamb and pomegranate molasses pies, pureeing various berries for flavoured cheesecakes, and mincing beetroot, garlic, pinenuts and coriander for Alanna's fabulous beetroot pesto. But I knew that a sturdy Kitchen Aid is capable of so much more, providing you get the right extras. In April, with the long Estonian summer nights still only looming, we decided that we could really do with an ice cream attachment. Kitchen Aid is not readily available in Estonia yet, but we were going to London in April for a weekend with Johanna to feed our stomachs at The Petersham Nurseries and our eyes at The Borough Market. A perfect opportunity to buy the ice cream machine, no?

No. Although we spotted the ice cream machine in question in several good cookshops, with a big sign stating the RRP, they refused to sell it to us. You see, apparently you would have to buy the Kitchen Aid standing mixer, and then you'd get the ice cream machine for free. But to buy the ice cream machine separately was against some weird corporate rule. Well, we had the stand mixer already and had no plans of buying another one just so we could get the ice cream attachment! The same thing happened in Edinburgh in June - the Kitchen Aid ice cream machine, if available at all, was only sold as part of the stand mixer deal. Not separately..

Luckily, the rules in Germany are more relaxed. My friend Margit, who moved to Köln last year, drove to Estonia for a few weeks, and didn't mind to pick up the long-awaited-for ice cream machine to us. So now we have our ice cream machine, and we've certainly put it into good use. During the first week of ownership we churned out a new ice cream every night. We even used the excuse of a movie night to serve 5 different ice creams to our friends!

To start with, we made four ice creams/sorbets from the Reigning King of Frozen Desserts, David Lebovitz. The first ice cream we tried was his Vanilla Ice Cream (photo bottom left), which was a traditional custard-based ice cream. I loved the strong vanilla flavour (I used one of those fat vanilla beans that I had got as a gift from Melissa), but found the ice cream itself to be a bit too rich for my liking. Next time I'll try David's Philadelphia style vanilla ice cream, as that contains no eggs, so should be much lighter. Second ice cream we tried was Watermelon Sorbetto from his highly praised book The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accessories. The sorbetto was fantastic - so simple to make, with a pure watermelon flavour and extremely refreshing (see photo top right and see recipe here or here). A definite keeper! That was another followed by another super-easy and extremely delicious (and here I didn't even mind the ice cream being quite rich) ice cream - Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream. The name refers to the way coffee is served in Vietnam - always with sweetened condensed milk. The ice cream couldn't have been easier to make - you mix a can of condensed milk with 2 cups of strong coffee, cool and churn. Absolutely wonderful (you'll find a recipe in this article in San Francisco Chronicle), and I can see myself making this again and again. And last, but not least, we made a coconut sorbet. Well, there is no such recipe in David's book, if I'm honest with you. David provides a recipe for a Chocolate-Coconut Sorbet (see recipe here), but as I've been dreaming about coconut ice cream ever since I had a lovely version in Edinburgh just over a year ago, I simply adapted David's recipe to fit my ideal of a coconut ice cream :) And it was a successful adaptation, if I may say so myself - whiter than white, and really coconutty.

And I warn you now - there will be lots of ice cream posts on Nami-nami in the near future. For starters, there's this gooseberry sorbet recipe I simply have to share, and then there's a post by a very special guest blogger on the way. Stay tuned!!

Pille - I find that Kitchen Aid policy weird, too, and not only that but those attachments you can buy on their own in the US can be very expensive for what they are. I have made Nigella's "World's Best Chocolate Ice-Cream" from How To Eat, which is really a Marcella Hazan recipe, and it is divine. It really is the best chocolate ice-cream I've ever had. It includes caramel! Your ice creams look divine, and I've been telling myself that I need to purchase "The Perfect Scoop" really soon.

I've had my eye on the Kitchenaid ice cream maker attachment for ages, but haven't bought it (my Kitchenaid is so old that they hadn't even made the ice cream maker when I bought mine!). Sounds like you're having a great time with it, and that it works well. Love your Vietnamese coffee ice cream; I'll try that one in my regular ice cream machine.

K&S - exactly! It's nice and warm here at the moment, so a scoop of ice cream in the evening is very welcome!

Inne - it was incredibly easy, and as I love coffee flavour, this one is going to be a 'usual' ice cream in our house..

Shaun - thanks for the tip-off about Nigella's/Marcella Hazan's recipe - I've got the book, so I'll check it out soon. And I'm yet to buy "The Perfect Scoop" myself (luckily foodblogs are awash with David's recipes:)

Dagmar - that was one delicious and easy recipe, so go ahead!

Lydia - if you're happy with your current ice cream machine, then I don't know if the KA attachment is absolutely necessary. But we had none before, and the KA ice cream machine has been doing a great job...

Sciencemel - we had made sorbet without gadgets, but they weren't as smooth and light of course..

Joey - the movie night was fun, although my friends might turn up even if I only serve them crisps:)

Meeta - we already are enjoying it!

Brilynn - we've tried several other fantastic versions, so you'll hear about them soon!

Jeanne - I am lucky indeed:) I made another batch of that Vietnamese coffee ice cream today - so easy, and so satisfying. I served it alongside an apple pie - great combination!

Tanna - that's indeed all there is to the coffee ice cream. I mix a 400 gram of sweetened condensed milk with 200 ml of single cream and 300 ml of strong coffee, let the mixture cool and then churn. A great recipe!!!